On Wednesday, March 2, students, family and faculty celebrated the Class of 2011 recipients of the Rodney M. Coe Distinction in Community Service.

This distinction program, one of only two distinction programs in the school, is awarded upon graduation, following the completion of a four-year program of community service, faculty-guided reflection and integrative workshops at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

The program is sponsored by the department of family and community medicine and the Saint Louis University Area Health Education Center, and it is designed to promote a reciprocal, beneficial relationship between the student and the community that results in both professional character development and increased community health.

The Coe program provides service learning opportunities for medical students to develop a familiarity with the context of and interventions applied to communities and community health issues in order to acquire skills, compassion and understanding, and thereby developing leadership abilities necessary for successful work in the community.

In addition to the actual community service, students develop skills in formal written critical reflection based on service and program objectives. In the fourth year of the programs, each student, together with one of the Coe directors and community agency leaders, develops and implements a program, service or tool identified by the agency as a need of the agency or service population.

The first cohort of students with this distinction graduated in 1995. The program currently has approximately 100 students spread over the four years of medical education.

The following students will receive a Medicinae Doctoris with distinction in community service at University commencement May 21. Their fourth-year projects, which were presented at the March 2, Coe reception, follow their names.